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The Performance Critic combining critical theory and performance analysis to provide technical reviews for London’s live artists Performance Analyses Below, you will find all of the public analyses that I have published to date for free as part of my service as a live performance mentor . To return to The Performance Critic's home page at any time, please click here. Alternatively, you can click the 'Return' button at the bottom of this page. [Performance Analysis:] STILL LIFE WITH ONIONS, Barons Court Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] FRANK’S CLOSET, Union Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] MARRY ME A LITTLE, Stage Door Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] A CARAVAN NAMED DESIRE, Camden People's Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] SKIN, Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] UNDER INFLUENCE, CryerArts Centre, London. [Performance Analysis:] WONDER DRUG: A COMEDY ABOUT CYSTIC FIBROSIS, Omnibus Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] SUPERNOVA, Omnibus Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] SWEENEY TODD: THE VICTORIAN MELODRAMA, Wilton's Music Hall, London. [Performance Analysis:] POTTED PANTO, Apollo Theatre, London. [Performance Analysis:] HEARTBREAK HOTEL, Etcetera Theatre, London. Star Ratings: The Performance Critic 1 2 3 4 5 RETURN TO THE PERFORMANCE CRITIC

LEE JAMES BROADWOOD Interdisciplinary Artist: Live Performance and Creative Media About Me Audiovisual Content Live Performances Written Content My Website Highlights Poetry Anthology my most recent publication, now available for purchase! More Info Order Today

I will start by noting that there are significant similarities between the two texts but only insofar as structure and event type; style and content disallow a feeling that these two performances truly cohere with and relate to one another and hence warrant being presented together. Marketing efforts present these as 'plays about loss and redemption', but these themes are secondary and sometimes even merely subtextual in the second short play, 'The Distressed Table'. I should also note here that I do find it strange that this second play has been retitled to 'The Closure' across promotional content — both because this seems to have little relevance to the text itself and because this causes for another disconnect, between performance and marketing contents. The second of these two performances, both directed by Josh Hinds, is certainly stronger than the first, and I would recommend further work on this, which is closer to a refined, finished play than the other. Both texts do struggle considerably to depict enriched and particularised characters, presenting developments abruptly and with a certain nonchalance vaguely reminiscent of a fledgeling magical realism. The texts also struggle to retain subtlety in their expression, with any allusions and specific details becoming immediate events. Overall, the content feels rushed and disjointed. In terms of acting, there is a great disparity in style, which is notably a directorial issue and is most evident in the first performance of the two, in which there is a great struggle between caricaturality and naturalism. However, I understand that for actors presented with texts like these, subtlety and particularity is difficult to discern and discover, and caricaturality is impossible to prevent when extremity and unnatural speech patterns in the dialogue exist within the lines and plot themselves. Nonetheless, the performers, whom I commend for their work, perform their roles adequately. Jo Sutherland demonstrates excellent vitality and transformativity, with her two character profiles being entirely different from one another. Similarly, Aysha Niwaz demonstrates great vocal transformativity, and Daniel Subin has a great naturalistic quality to his first profile. I would have liked to have seen greater corporeal expressivity in Subin, however, who limits transformation between his two characters to the positioning of the mouth — in Bernard's lisp. 'Quest for the Mongolian Death Worm' Written by Liam Grady. Most notably, the mysticality and adventure of this first text can immediately be perceived, instead, as Orientalism, which is worth reconsidering. Allusions to magical creatures that do not exist, or exaggerative descriptions of the food chains and activities of mythic vicious beasts, feel more fairytale-like in nature and hence unproblematic, but specific depictions of contexts, namely as we are led by an experienced, wild and mysterious guide through the 'dangerous' Egyptian deserts with 'camels attempting to fornicate with the Sphynx' — camels whose 'arseholes', nonetheless, see frequent mention — feel too stereotypical, carelessly crass, and harsh. I would consider the sociopolitical value behind the content presented and how this may be perceived by audiences. Of the two presented, I struggled the most with this text — specifically, it is difficult to keep up with its content, which demands at each revelation of new information a keen eye and a level of pre-understanding, to know the subtext and piece the story together. From the very beginning, characters are presented to us abruptly and without clear relationship types. Their emotional responses to one another are highly charged, with no key reason as to why, and too much of the content owes to mystical lands and creatures and Rufus's (Sutherland) descriptions of them and her father's travels, and later Heather's (Niwaz) psychedelic trip, that the primary content, the actual story of the characters, becomes subordinate and ultimately lost. Persistent themes, such as death and adventure, instead of contextualising the action, become, in their vague vignettes, the content itself. “A confused text presenting rudimentary character and event types that result in inefficacious extremes.” 'The Distressed Table' Written by Melville Lovatt. Ironically, I would have preferred less of a plot for this text and more of a surreal and absurdist structural approach that does seem to be inherent in the characters’ exchange over the distressed table. There is a clowning and ludicrous quality intrinsic to the interactions between the characters: they obsess over the meticulous, obscure details of the table’s 'distressing', haggling its price; they wildly upset one another; and return only to repeat the conversation with a variation that initially subverts expectation and has a bathos effect once we realise the characters are starting once again to quarrel. I would have enjoyed this initial structure to return persistently, veritably forcing us to watch the two characters suffering themselves and causing each other to suffer as well over the table’s purchase. Indeed, I would have preferred this much more than the current content that frequently and needlessly returns, somewhat reflective of the first text, to out-of-the-blue extremes: suicide, imprisonment, divorce, etc. Again, plot developments feel rushed and too strategised: for instance, Bernard (Subin) reveals he is a sailor, and we are straightaway on a boat on the lake. Extremifying, instead, this caricatural presentation of Bernard and Christine (Sutherland) — accentuating his lisp and stubborn but bumbling attitude and her posh uptightness and propensity to deplore — would really accentuate the fruitful and endearing quality of this performance: its characters' interactions. Once more, we have 'proud Indonesian tribes' responsible for the table wood and its finish, and our Orientalism returns... This one detail ignored, the text itself is quite endearing and untroublesome in comparison the first. Its characters are developed not through backstories [an attempt at which ultimately dilutes and artificialises the content unnecessarily to meet playtext conventions] but through peculiarities of context and character speech. I would recommend further thought to the secondary material — Bernard's failing relationship with his wife (Niwaz), and Christine's speech to her husband[?] who has died after being imprisoned[?] [a scene that I would ultimately cut, as this did not progress narrative or story and was confounding in its content]. This secondary content ultimately feels irrelevant and compromises our understanding and appreciation of the primary material. “An interesting premise with eccentric characters compromised by interruptions from secondary or irrelevant material.” Want a technical analysis for your own live performance? Private and public analyses are requestable by any artist and for any live performance type. For more information, please click here. Artists from across the UK and [online] across the globe can also benefit from guidance, support and training in the form of consultations and/or workshops as part of my work as a live performance mentor.

Chaos and absurdity are the very best friends of this performance, which remains throughout, in its content and style, unpredictable, ludicrous and energised. The comedy in this text, written by Aidan Pittman and Hudson Hughes and also directed by Hughes, is particularly strong, with a consistent library of subversions, hyperboles, and abrupt dark quips, and is permitted to flourish well with good timing and a wonderfully exaggerative characterisation by Pittman (also playing Dr Dolittle). Pittman has excellent vitality and has created a most unique and discernable identity for his character. Positioning of the mouth and sudden yet precise gesticulations, side glances to the audience upon innuendo and in-joke…the caricature with which Pittman presents us is exceptional in its conception and consistency. Conversely, I must admit that after halfway into the performance, the Doctor’s peculiar and lovable idiolect and his sharp, articulated and rather robotic movements had disappeared, and I understand this is due, in part, to a faltering in plot/narrative and in performance style, whereby there is an inherent difficultly in marrying the performance content with the Doctor’s character. The text is divisible into three main parts: the video depictions; the story of the ‘huge fucking ruby’; and the main premise that contextualises it all, which I will refer to as the ‘talk show’, wherein Dr Dolittle presents himself, his recent successes, and his new book. It is these two latter parts that allow for the greatest disconnect in content, namely in their chosen modes of presentation: the story of the huge fucking ruby is, overall, self-contained, owing to dialogues between him and secondary characters and to first-person self-references and descriptions of the events he had experienced. The talk show, however, sees a direct audience address wherein specific audience members, as opposed to the general audience as a whole, are targeted and approached. The story, and the video projections themselves, remain generally descriptive and mimetic, consciously ignoring the presence of the audience, barring a few passive invitations for audience participation [upon which I shall elaborate later]; the talk show, on the other hand: metatheatrical, confrontational, self-referential. Whilst references to murder/death and Eddie Murphy’s film portrayals of the Doctor are frequent throughout, Eddie’s ultimate murder at the end of the play feels the most incongruous of all the material. There ought still to be structure to this chaos, which is admittedly present in the artificial existence of a story with chapters, a throughline, motifs, etc. but, despite a strong beginning with clarity, purpose and direction, nonexistent in the talk show sections. That all should be resting upon this final murder — the very title of the play forboding it, the Doctor having somehow predicted it all, the related merchandise he has prepared — and that the murder should be presented as a denouement of sorts is most incoherent, given that the material has not drawn significant focus to this at all. Performance style is complicated further by metatheatrical references which coincide with Pittman’s fading persona of the Doctor: Pittman referencing his involuntary sweat; his stating he ought to “get back into character”; the awkward bumbling as “Eddie Murphy” asks the audience to excuse him whilst he struggles to make his way through them and to the stage; the casual and non-performative manner in which the audience are admitted into the house; and, to some degree, how audience participation is conceived and prompted. Subtractive items aside, this remains a most enjoyable performance, a rollercoaster treat. Comedy is refined, articulate and well executed, and the facilitative video graphics and overall characterisation we are presented make for a fascinating and inspired watch. “A hilarious, creative and inspired performance.” Want a technical analysis for your own live performance? Private and public analyses are requestable by any artist and for any live performance type. For more information, please click here. Artists from across the UK and [online] across the globe can also benefit from guidance, support and training in the form of consultations and/or workshops as part of my work as a live performance mentor.

Rob Burbidge's text has a certain lyricism and fluidity, demonstrating well the writer's ability to generate flowing dialogue. I would first recommend greater differentiation in the style of speech of each individual character. The most notable trait in this regard is Susan's (Naomi Bowman) loquaciousness, her character surely possessing the vast majority of the lines. Burbidge has captured well Susan's ability to ramble confidently and incessantly, without the subject matter she presents becoming esoteric or too irrelevant, and to domineer conversations with a playful and feeling but self-assured attitude. The other characters, however, remain markedly indistinct. Beyond second-party references to Joanna's (Olivia Steele) "Hampshire poshness" and Behrman's (Christopher Kouros) nationality, there are no idiolectal peculiarities to the characters, and this would be most fruitful to explore. As the text progresses, however, it is most notably character development and plot that need refining. Despite this lingering on Susan's rambling, or on the atmospherics of the characters' context, the overall plot is incredibly rushed — to such a degree that the text quickly becomes rather shallow, hyperfixated upon symbolic references and specific allusions to moments or persons in the character's memories and anecdotes of their past [Tommy for Susan, a childhood paint set for Joanna, etc.]... Whilst these minor features become the text's primary focus, major developments, however, remain always left to our imagination. This culminates in the extremely sudden [and thus not too credible] development of Joanna's pneumonia — and her just-as-sudden, miraculous overnight recovery — and, immediately afterwards, Behrman's death. I use the word ‘plot’ in this analysis lightly, as I do not mean to imply that in order for a play to be successful, it must have an intricate, captivating and powerful plot…I simply mean that the plot content should feel deliberate, articulate and precise. I enjoy the stasis, or rather stagnancy, that we find the characters in, and should the plot pivot solely upon its characters' unchanging context and the near-death of its main character, there is no reason why this should not be enjoyable, coherent and efficacious. But this lack of pacing and, most importantly, of focus destroys any strong emotional connection with the characters for us. The symbolism of the wilting creeper and Behrman's masterpiece, Susan's shoes, etc., are all very strong symbolic references in themselves and have great intrinsic significance and value, but how this marries the content is just as important, and there certainly is a disconnect there. One disconnect is in the incredible fact that all three characters are somehow artists. Whilst pre- and post-war times were certainly marked with rapid and widespread artistic movements, making this situation not too difficult to conceive, the apathy that this is presented with allows for a certain bluntness and clumsiness — Joanna and Behrman, both so fond of art, just accepting that they live beside one another, and Susan abruptly revealing that she has, somehow thanks to Joanna, taken up drawing ‘again’ to such a degree that she is now the breadwinner for the roost. We start with a tension between Joanna and Behrman, and suddenly it is revealed that she has been modelling for him for days now; after only their very first meeting, we see Susan kissing Joanna affectionately on the cheek [perhaps a directorial issue, though]; we have only just heard of the man that saved Joanna from the river, and David (Kieran Dobson) appears; David's somehow overlooked misogynist remarks, leaving Joanna to want to marry him after only three, quite unspecial, encounters… These elements, of which there are many more, all compromise the integrity and credibility of the text. Without this pacing and precision in character/plot development, I am sad to report that the play felt rather skeletal, leaning more into atmosphere, symbolism and context than into character depth and relatability. This feeling was especially strong once Joanna was on her deathbed and Susan and Behrman were arguing incessantly, the very language of the play being reduced to slurs and angsts that felt in their lack of idiosyncrasy that they could have been uttered by anyone and not uniquely by our particular characters here. Characterisation is quite good from each of the actors, though I would similarly suggest better pacing for Bowman, who loses melody in delivery, which is most important for her babbling character, and who stumbles over and misdelivers lines frequently. Intensity behind argumentation is severely lacking across all of the relevant cast members. I commend Steele for the characterisation of Joanna's illness, forcing deep and chesty coughs and continuing to present her character’s mental distress even in her sleep, so that we were presented a fever dream of sorts and not just a still, resting body that could have easily faded into the background. Deliveries of epistolary sequences are in desperate need of refinement, however, both where acting and performance style are concerned. “An atmospheric play rife with symbolism but needing better focus, pacing and depth.” Want a technical analysis for your own live performance? Private and public analyses are requestable by any artist and for any live performance type. For more information, please click here. Artists from across the UK and [online] across the globe can also benefit from guidance, support and training in the form of consultations and/or workshops as part of my work as a live performance mentor.

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